


The way Karkat's Friends Help (The most original title ever)

by faraandmera



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, everyone comforts karkat, jade might be somewhat out of charater, this hasn't been edited, this is not my best work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 20:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4759685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faraandmera/pseuds/faraandmera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't like Karkat was subtle about the pain hiding behind his anger. Everyone just had different way's of helping him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The way Karkat's Friends Help (The most original title ever)

Being Karkat’s roommate it was hard for John _not_ to notice. As much Karkat pretended to be fine or yelled until John was forced to leave him alone, It wasn’t possible to keep that up all the time. Eventually, and surprisingly often, the bottle would over flow and Karkat would find himself curled up against a wall trying to hold back sobs.

It wasn’t possible that John would never notice, but he knew bringing it up would just send Karkat into a yelling fit and the directness wouldn’t help either of them. So John found work-around’s to trying to make his friend feel better.

“Hey Karkat come watch one of your shitty movies with me!”

“They aren’t shitty!”

“Just come on! I already have it set up.”

“What the fuck did you do that for?” Karkat sighed, dropping onto the couch- and piles of pillows and blankets- next to John. “Or this.”

“Felt like it,” John shrugged, though Karkat wasn’t convinced, and threw a blanket at- over- Karkat.

“Sure, whatever.”

It didn’t take till half-way into the movie for them to end up leaned together, and by the end John was mock-comforting Karkat for his emotional response to the movie.

“Dude you’ve seen this movie like eight times... This week.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey, you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay, alright... Shut up John.”

“...Another movie?”

“Sure.”

John probably wasn’t the best person for comfort but Karkat appreciate the effort, at least.

* * *

 

Kanaya was Karkat’s oldest friend, and as such she had learned to read the subtle differences in Karkat’s tone from day to day. She could tell when he was just being loud to get his point across, or when his anger was truly directed at himself. It helped when he said it, too.

“God I can’t do _anything_ right, why are you even my friend!” Karkat slammed a book onto a desk besides Kanaya who barely had to glance up to know what expression Karkat wore. “Guess who failed, again?!”

“Would you like help studying?”

“No...”

“That reminds me, speaking of help, I could use yours.”

“You? Need my help? What could you possibly- I mean, what is it?”

“I would like some advice, on the topic of dating. I wanted your opinion on something.”

“Oh that? That’s like, the one thing I got covered, what would you like to know?”

Kanaya didn’t need to address the source of the issues, Karkat was hardly one to want to talk about things so directly, and would find any way to avoid talking about it. But Kanaya had known him long enough to know what the issues were. And the feelings of useless and worthlessness he felt couldn’t be fixed easily. But she did know that having someone say they need him, even for something simple, improved his mood immensely.

She could tell by the way his face light up and he excitedly acted like an expert on the topic.

“Thank you, Karkat.”

“Yeah, yeah, no problem. Let me know how it goes.”

“Of course.”

And It wasn’t like he gave bad advice, for the most part.

* * *

 

Jade was nice, really she was, but she was also blunt when she had to be. She didn’t take well to people she cared about putting themselves down so Karkat was almost constantly on the receiving end of the patented “Jade Harley talk.”

She also wanted everyone to feel like, if they needed help, they could ask her. Karkat hardly asked for help though, so sometimes she had to bring the bluntness back and tell him he could.

“Karkat.” Jade slammed her hands down on the table stopping Karkat’s speech about how the class they had to take wasn’t really relevant to their major.

“What?”

“Do you need help?”

“What makes you think I-” Karkat stopped when she glared and rolled his eyes. “Yeah.”

“Great! Because I need some help with your best class, anyway.”

“You do? I thought you were acing all your classes.”

“So are you, almost.”

“Almost and barely.”

“Still! That’s better than average!”

“Why do I feel like this is one of ‘those’ conversations again.”

“Because you keep saying you’re bad at a class your doing really well at! And refusing to ask for help!”

“...”

“...”

“...Alright so what do you need help with.”

“Karkat.”

“Fine! Help me with this then!”

“Also, You’re really smart sometimes.”

“What.”

“Nothing, nothing.”

Jade also wasn’t super subtle, but Karkat secretly appreciated that.

* * *

 

Dave was hardly very direct, but he could be when he needed to. And, despite spending most of his free time and Karkat and John’s dorm, he didn’t have much free time. He also hadn’t known Karkat for more than a year, so one would expect that he wouldn’t know Karkat as well as the other, at least. But he was still probably the best at realizing what Karkat needed.

“Guess what?”

“You’re invading my dorm again, probably here to steal our food.”

“Karkat, I’m seriously hurt you would think that’s the only reason I’m here. It’s super uncool of you to assume. I happen to be here with a new movie to add to your shitty collection, thank you very much.”

“Oh... Thanks?”

“Here.” Dave tossed the dvd case at Karkat as he dropped onto the couch. “Let’s watch the shitty movie together and you can tell me why you’re extra pissed off today.”

“I’m pissed off because you keep calling my movies shitty, asshole.”

“Oh shit, I had no idea I was the cause of all the problems. Don’t be a prick Karkat, what’s wrong?”

“The same shit that’s always wrong.” Karkat put the movie in, dropping down next to Dave. “Does it matter?”

“Well you’re upset about it so, yeah.”

“I’d rather not talk about this shit right now, okay?”

“Alright. I don’t have class tomorrow, so I’ll be here all night if you do, though.”

“Right now I want to watch this movie, so be a good pillow and shut the fuck up.”

“Shitty movie you mean, and since when and I a pillow?”

“Since you decided to sit on my side of the couch and criticize my movies.”

“Aren’t pillows usually, I don’t know, not twice the size of the person using them.”

“It’s like you want me to kick you out of the dorm.”

As much as Karkat didn’t want to admit it, Dave was probably the best at making him feel better.


End file.
